From historical records at the National Weather Service in Missoula and the Clearwater Historical Museum, it appears that weather in the spring and summer of 1934 was a good deal warmer than usual, not just the day the state record was set. Not only that, but there had been flooding in December of 1933 which had the city fathers looking at ways to deepen and rip rap Orofino Creek to prevent further problems.

Temperatures in May 1934 were in the 90s and 100s off and on which moved the drying of fuels and the fire season a month earlier than usual. Access to the forests were restricted by both the U.S. Forest Service and Idaho Governor C. Ben Ross due to fire danger.

Fortunately, the actual number of fires was pretty typical, according to Rusty Eck of Clearwater-Potlatch Timber Protective Association. News reports do speak of lightning caused fires in the area.

Orofino temperatures for the period were July 20-99, July 21-81, July 22-86, July 23-102, July 24-106, July 25-107, July 26-110, July 27-117, July 28-118, July 29-103, July 30-104, July 31-94.

One of our readers, Nelson Berry, told us about the record temperature and said he had found it on the search engine Ask Jeeves (www.ask.com). Our winner, Tom McTevia, said he remembered it from his Idaho history class.

Monday: It set a record.

Tuesday: Ask Jeeves.

 

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